Orbis's medical experts provide optical treatment for a patient on baord the Flying Eye Hospital. (Photo: VNA) Can Tho (VNA) - Orbis International, a globalnon-profit organisation dedicated to preventing and treating avoidableblindness, has launched a clinical training programme onboard the Flying Eye Hospital, a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospitalon board a plane, for 52 eye-care professionals at hospitals in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.
Over the course of three weeks, which runs from May 8-29, Orbis’sclinical staff and medical experts provided in-person, hands-on training tohelp these medical staff build their skills to treat the leading causes ofblindness and visual impairment in their communities.
This marks the 12th time the Flying Eye Hospital has helda training project in Vietnam, including one virtual project on Cybersight,Orbis’s telemedicine platform.
According to Pham KimNgoc, Country Director of Orbis Vietnam, this year marks the 20th anniversaryof the Orbis office in Hanoi.
Orbis started collaborating with the eye healthsector in Vietnam in 1996 by providing hospital-based trainings at the VietnamNational Institute of Ophthalmology. Since then, Orbis Vietnam and its partnershave worked to increase the quality of care available by improving training andstrengthening human resources.
In addition tohosting now 12 Flying Eye Hospital projects, Orbis Vietnam has helped establishscreening and treatment centers for retinopathy of prematurity and otherpediatric eye care, hospitals, vision centers, a wet lab, and an eye bank.
This project willcomplement Orbis's ongoing programmes throughout the country and contribute tothe National Blindness Prevention Strategy, which was approved by the primeminister in 2016.
Orbis Vietnam has so far provided eye screenings and examinations to nearly 5.3 million people, medicaland optical treatment for over one million people, surgical treatment fornearly 140,000 people, and trained almost 33,000 eye health professionals.
Last year, Orbis screened more than 70,000 students for eyediseases and trained more than 200 ophthalmologists in Can Tho. This year, itwill provide free surgeries for 70 cases.
Ng🍸uyen Thuc Hien, Vice Chairman of Can Tho CityPeople's Committee, said that Orbis’s programme has helped medical staff at CanTho Maxillo Dental and Eye Hospital and Can Tho Children's Hospital havethe opportunity to exchange valuable experiences in research and application ofscience in the treatment of eye diseases, contributing to improving the health carefor local people./.
